About Waikōkopu

Our olive grove is located off State Highway 1 in Kuku, Horowhenua, behind the heritage building - Kuku Cooperative Dairy Company factory.

 

This was a Māori-led enterprise instigated in 1915. Its post-fire rebuild of 1919 stands today. The immediate land around the factory was also long held under the mana of local hapū. However, the land was requisitioned or taken under extraordinary authorities exercised by the government of 1941, as part of cheese production for the WWII war effort.

 

In Feb 2006, Richard Anderson and I, Huhana Smith (of Ngāti Tukorehe, Kuku) bought the U-shaped nearly 7 hectares behind the cooperative.

 

Our land then surrounds other former produce enterprises, related managers' houses and special Māori site. Since 2007, we have been revegetating the Waikōkopu Stream that flows through the property, hence the grove’s name.

 

In 2008, we bought one of the neighbouring managers' houses. In 2009, Māori relations, friends, Richard and I planted the main grove of Frantoio, Leccino and Pendolino varieties on an old Ōhau River bed below the Tikorangi ridge line.

 

Fast forward to 2016-2020, when Syrian New Zealanders brought their inter-generational expertise to our grove and orchards.

 

We now harvest, press and prune with The Olive Press from Wairapapa. We are very happy to share the same gravels as Ōhau Wines vineyard, which are on the north side of the Ōhau River. They stock our oil today. We sell via Ōhau Market, Māoriland Hub, Ōtaki, via We Love Local, and Paraparanumu.

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Huhana Smith and her partner Richard Anderson - photo by High-Value Nutrition Ko Ngā Kai Whai Painga